People's Assembly Against Austerity

No. And people are now having their housing benefit cut. Most of them are working people.

jane Nobody is saying benefit fraud is OK - it isn't. But if people are caught defrauding the benefit system, they are punished.

The many banking scandals involved several of our previously trusted institutions, run by highly respected "establishment" figures who were chummy with politicians on all sides and who were supposed to be experts in the field of finance. Yet they denied knowing anything about the criminal manipulation of various parts of the banking system, which, coincidentally of course, enriched them and the various banks' top earners, at the expense of account holders (including small businesses), their own lower paid staff and their shareholders. Ultimately the whole UK economy was destabilised because of their actions. Sir Fred got his knighthood taken away and a bit of flack in the press for a few weeks but we have seen scandal after scandal. and have any of them been properly held to account for what happened?

True!

Of course I'm not. I'm simply trying to put the sensationalist and fraudulent reporting of some sections of the press into context. The banks bailout has cost £1.2 trillion. Not an insignificant sum.

Yes MiceElf, but two wrongs don't make a right do they?
Are you saying that the RBS scandal absolves ordinary people from behaving decently and honestly, or that the government should not seek to reduce benefit fraud?

0.7% of the welfare bill. Absolute peanuts compared to the bailout for RBS and the rest of the banks.

JessM that is a ridiculous post! You know quite well threads are for anyone to join in. Or was the original post just meant to advertise the event? I don't think that is what GN is for.

And thank you for your concern, but I have, in fact, had an excellent day.

only 0.7% of benefits are claimed fraudulently?
That's still £7million per £1billion!!
What's the welfare bill again ??

But if no one chipped in, it'd fall of the end of 'Active' before anyone had read it.

I was asking J08 what she meant by 'struggles' - I absolutely agree with everything you've said Eloethan and Jess was right on the money as well re the reaction

j08 bluebell By "struggle" I'm not talking about people taking to the streets, chucking bricks around and causing general mayhem.

The Dagenham Ford women car workers were involved in a struggle to get equal pay for equal work. This triggered further actions and protests and eventually led to the Equal Pay Act.

JessM That's just what I was trying to say - I merely posted something that I thought some gransnetters might be interested in.

Oh my goodness! The combination of those who are not interested in protesting against the coalition and j08 having a less than tiptop day makes bizarre reading.
One of the strange aspects of GN behaviour. Someone starts a thread on something like, say:
Country Dancing
and half a dozen people feel compelled to chip in to say how so not interested they are in country dancing, or dancing of any kind.

Ana what did you expect - CEOs of FTSE 100 companies - bankers?

What struggles do you mean?

Sorry - it sounds too left wing to be practicable in the UK.

Oh, and the list also has a lawyer and a (former) catholic priest. Scary eh?

Is this an offshoot of The Assembly of the People Against Austerity?

www.guardian.co.uk/society2013/mar/19/uk-families-helped-by-save-the-children

And as a point of information, 60% of welfare benefits are pension related, of the rest, the majority are paid to people in low paid work. And only 0.7% of benefits are claimed fraudulently.

The headline names have a fine track record working for social justice, that is, working for a more equal and just society. The ways and means may differ but these people have put their efforts where their mouths are.

We don't want that kind of struggle in our streets. Had enough of it last summer.

No. Not communist at all, is it?

J08 Do you think the NHS, regulation of working conditions, state pensions, welfare benefits, etc., were achieved because the rich and powerful suddenly decided out of the goodness of their hearts to do something to benefit and empower ordinary people?

Every gain that working people have achieved has been through struggle.

Chair of the British Communist party! General Sec. of British Communist party! Editor of the Morning Star!

Nothing to add except human rights and social justice are not interchangeable concepts

www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/05/people-assembly-against-austerity

A lot of trade unionists on the list.

Sel I didn't set out to be contentious - I merely posted some information about a conference that I thought some people may be interested in - I couldn't understand why you were getting so hot under the collar about it.

I am well aware that conditions in many other countries are a great deal worse than here. In what way does that mean that I should not be concerned about injustices here? I think this is a great country but I am sorry to see the way it is joining the race to the bottom - I appreciate that you may think differently.

My husband and I own our house, have good pensions and a very comfortable lifestyle. Fortunately, our son and his partner have reasonably well paid jobs and, with some assistance from us and the in-laws, have been able to buy a house. Our daughter also has her own home.

We are not concerned for ourselves - we haven't got a whole lifetime ahead of us to worry about the security of our jobs, our pensions, our housing, education for our children, the health service, etc., etc.

More and more people in this country are being employed on "Zero Hours Contracts" where they have no guarantee of the hours they may be working from one day to the next. People's wages have been flat lining for many years and they have been actively encouraged to bridge the gap by taking on debt.

The banks and the financial services industries behaved recklessly and dishonestly and have created the mess that we're in now - and yet what has happened to them - they are given more and more money, which they are unwilling to lend to small businesses. Because they have received handouts from the government, they don't really need savers' money now and are consequently paying derisory interest rates.

People with severe disabilities are being deemed "fit for work" and having their disability benefits removed. Brian McArdle, a 57 year old, who was paralysed down one side after a stroke, who could not speak properly and was blind in one eye was pronounced "fit for work" by Atos. He died of a heart attack a day after his benefits were stopped. There are many cases like this.

I would describe myself as politically to the left, but that doesn't make me a communist, any more than describing myself as politically to the right would make me a fascist.

The people involved in this movement come from a fairly wide spectrum of left-leaning people, some of whom may not receive your seal of approval. However, Caroline Lucas, Tony Benn and Bruce Kent are brave and highly respected people who have a record of saying what they think and fighting for what they believe in. If only there were more people like them.